The Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago have been inhabited for 7,000 years. The earliest inhabitants were believed to have travelled down the Orinoco River in Venezuela to Trinidad and Tobago. Two groups, the Arawaks and the Caribs or Kalinago arrived sometime between 1200-1300 AD. (1)

According to UNHCR (The United Nations Refugee Agency), “Trinidad is considered to be the earliest-settled part of the Caribbean. The first inhabitants of both Trinidad and Tobago were pre-agricultural indigenous groups from the Orinoco Delta of South America. Until the 15th and 16th century Trinidad was home to a number of Arawak (Taino) and Carib (Kalinago). (2) Other related groups include the Nepoya/Nepuyo, Suppoya, Galibi, Yaio/Yao, Chaima, Warao, Kalipuna, Carinepogoto, Garini, and Aruaca.

According to Kim Johnson “there are people living in Guyana today called Arawaks. These same people, however, if you enquire, call themselves 'Lokono'. (That is a word which, in their language, means "the people." Many, perhaps most, of these tribes call themselves "the people" in the words of their language. (3) Wikipedia defines the “Arawak people (from aru, the Lucayan word for cassava flour) are some of the indigenous peoples of the West Indies. The group belongs to the Arawakan language family… The Arawak people include the Taíno, who occupied the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas (Lucayans); the Nepoya and Suppoya of Trinidad, and the Igneri, who were supposed to have preceded the Caribs in the Lesser Antilles…” (4)

The Caribs are a people often referred to by the English as “'Caribbees' 'Charibs' or 'Caribs', the French used 'Caraibes' and, for those on the mainland, 'Galibis'. Fr. Raymond Breton, who lived amongst the Indians in Dominica from 1641 to 1655, said, however, that the men called themselves 'Callinago' and the women called themselves 'Callipunam'. Today, among anthropologists, the favoured name is 'Kalina' but those still living in St. Vincent call themselves 'Garifuna'.” (3)

Not much is known about the other groups (indigenous people) of Trinidad and Tobago. K. Marie Josephs article entitled, "Indigenous Languages of the Caribbean," states that the Nepoya/Nepuyo, Suppoya, and Yaio/Yao languages have been classified by linguist Douglas MacRae Taylor as "ghost" languages because virtually no trace was left of them.” (5) I urge readers to visit Ms. Josephs’ website at www.cariblanguage.org for a look at her compilation of words from the languages listed above. Native speakers of these languages should assist her in her valiant effort to record and preserve these languages.

According to Ms. Josephs, “Galibi is a Cariban language spoken in Venezuela, Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname…The Galibi people also inhabited the islands of Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago pre-European invasion and the Galibi language was the dominant language of Trinidadian Amerindians. The Galibi people served as a major link in trading between the Kalinago people and the various Cariban-speaking groups on the South American mainland.

The last name is one of the reasons Galibi is known as "true Carib" because the word Caribe (and eventually Carib) is a corruption of the word Galibi.” (5)The Yaio or Yao is yet another Cariban “ghost language” once spoken in Trinidad and Venezuela. K. Marie Josephs has listed 52 words “recorded by Dutch geographer Joannes de Laet in 1640. (5)

Next: The Chaima, Warao, Kalipuna, Carinepogoto, Garini, and Aruaca.Reference1) (2011), Carib People, December 13, 2011, Wikipedia.org.2) World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Trinidad and Tobago : Overview, December 13, 2011, http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,MRGI,,TTO,4954ce55c,0.html3) Lokono, story of the Caribs and the Arawaks, The December 20, 2011, http://www.raceandhistory.com/Taino/Lokono.htm4) (2011), The Arawaks, December 26, 2011, Wikipedia.org5) Galibi (True Carib), December 26, 2011, http://www.cariblanguage.org/galibi.html

DUMUREI.COM is the online resource for the preservation of the cultural heritage of the Garifuna/Kalipuna/Carib people and others residing in our sharedcommunities of St. Vincent, Dominica, Guyana, Trinidad, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Belize, the United States, Canada and England.